It is esteemed that the number of flowering plants existing in the world over amounts to more than 250,000 species. Within the trophic chain, green or chlorophyll plants are on the basement of the pyramid as they are autotrophic, i. e., they are capable of producing their own food from inert mineral substances, such as CO2 (carbon dioxide) and H2O (water), by transforming them into glucose with solar energy as an activating partner. However, there is a small group (1%=2,500 species) of plants lacking (at least partially) of the photosynthesis capability, whereby there change into heterotrophic, thus totally or partially stealing the sap elaborated by other plants; i. e., they live on the nutrients provided by other organic forms (Heywood, 1978).
Parasitic and/or hemiparasitic plants are within this group; of which more than 2500 species are known. These need to take the substance from other living organism, so-called host or lodge-giver. Botanic families with species representative of holoparasitic, strictly parasitic and/or hemiparasitic are: Santalaceae, Balanophoraceae, Rafflesiaceae, Misodendraceae, Cynomoriaceae, Hydnoraceae, Convolvulaceae (Custuta), Lauraceae (Cassytha), Lennoaceae (Lennoa), Scrophulariaceae (Striga and Castilleja), Orobanchaceae (Oribanche and Conopholis) and Loranthaceae (Arceuthobium, Phoradendron, Psittacanthus, Strutanthus and Cladocolea); the so-called mistletoe or “graft” belong to this latter family (INIFAP, 2006, Garrido, 2010).
There are very different classifications of mistletoes in the state of the art, which show how much must be learned and determined on this field. One of said classifications states that all mistletoes belong to Loranthaceae family, formed by some 40 genuses grouped into Loranthoidae (gigantic or tropical mistletoes) and Viscoidae (dwarf of tempered mistletoes) subfamilies. However, another more spread classification divides said mistletoes into two families: Loranthaceae and Viscaceae, and assigns 76 genus to the first family and 9 to the second. Both classifications agree in the existence of from 1000 to 1500 different species of mistletoes distributed in the world over. As a pair of examples, in Loranthaceae family, Struthantus genus comprises about 18 species, Cladocolea genus about 37 (although some specialists only assign 19) and Psittacanthus genus about 140 (or from 75 to 80, according with other experts). Phoradendron genus comprises about 500 species (although other specialists state that they are 300 and other more said that they are 180) and Viscum genus has assigned about 340 species. An evident conclusion is that the reason for said so remarkable variations is that there is an important duplication of species (synonymy), a confuse taxonomy and, in general, contradictory data revealing a lack of agreement among the specialists.
According to the Asociación Mexicana de Arboricultura (AMA), there are hundreds of species of mistletoe around the world, representing a serious problem in natural forests, plantations, fruit orchards and urban trees. In certain European countries, for instance, wherein Coniferae are predominant, Viscum album presence is of great importance. In the Southwestern United States, all the mistletoe (with the exception of one) belong to Phoradendron genus. In Chile, among other, we can find Tristerix aphyllus; but in the great majority of South American countries Triodanthus acutifolius prevails. A particular case is the city of Curitiba, Brazil, wherein about a third part of the urban trees are infested by this species which exhale such a grateful fragrance during the blossoming that all the inhabitants of said city find them adorable and are opposed to the removal of their trees (AMA, 2009).
In Mexico, parasitic plants of the Loranthaceae family are present in almost all of the natural ecosystems, there being registered presently 10 genuses and about 150 species (Chazaro et al., 1992); these plants constitute the third destruction agent in forests of cold tempered climate, after the fires and the decorticator insects, as they are present over more of the 10% of the wooded surface (Caballero, 1970), equivalent to about 1.8 million Ha of Coniferae and Latifoliae forests. Due to the parasitism of said mistletoe, a mean timber-yielding volume of 1.04 m3/year/Ha is lost, representing a yearly loss, at a nation level, of about 2 million cubic meter of round timber, without taking into account the volume lost by death of the trees (Vazquez, 1993).
Some State in Mexico, mainly Veracruz, Jalisco, Chiapas and Oaxaca, have the greater flora diversity in the country, whereby the majority of the species inhabiting there favor the presence of parasitic and/or hemiparasitic plants, among which mistletoes are the more numerous species growing in branches and body of different trees (Contreras, 2000).
Mistletoes are the second biological agent in the world of disturbance in tempered climate forests, with estimated losses of millions of m3 of timber by the year, without taking into account the death of on feet threes and the susceptibility to attacks by forest plagues and illnesses.
Actual studies carried out on parasitic and/or hemiparasitic plants show the presence of 10 genuses and 151 species of mistletoes distributed all over the country. As parasites on Coniferae there are reported four genuses of Arceuthobium, known as dwarf mistletoes and Psittacanthus, Phoradendron and Struthanthus as right mistletoes. In the case of Latifoliae or trees with broad leaves, the parasitic variety is greater, there being nine genuses the more representative of which are: Phoradendron, Psittacanthus, Strutanthus, Cladocolea, Phthirusa, Dendrophthora, Oryctanthus, Antidaphne and Ixocactus. 
The damages caused by these plants to their host vary from a wood deformation, a reduced growth, a greater susceptibility to the attack by other illnesses, up to a reduction in the tree longevity.
On the other side, there are known in the state of the art and are being searched different methods for the control of said parasitic plants; among which the more important are:
1. Biologic control. It consists in developing insects or fungi as practical agents in the control of parasitic plants.
2. Forestry control. It consists in the management of infected sites and involves the detection, evaluation, prevention and suppression of the pathogen. Once the infected tree or branch are cut away, the parasitic or hemiparasitic plant dies.
3. Chemical control. The development of a selective herbicide to control parasitic and/or hemiparasitic plants; the investigation with 60 different chemical products (a majority of which were formulations of 2,4-D or 2,4,5-T), but none of them was selective enough, as they also damaged the host tree. Ethephon (2-chloroethylphosphonic acid) is the most promising chemical product to induce the abscission of the aerial portion of the parasitic and/or hemiparasitic plants, with few secondary effects on the main host, respecting the combination host-parasite and the local environmental conditions (Hawksworth & Johnson, 1989).
Ethephon® or 2-chloroethylphosphonic acid is capable of reducing the extension index of the dwarf mistletoe and protecting those trees under the infected trees. However, the compositions existing in the state of the art do not allow the healing of the infected trees while the endophytic system remains alive, whereby the application thereof is restricted to trees in high valued areas, such as recreational, residential and commercial places.
There are described in the state of the art different compositions containing Ethephon®, among which there are: a concentrated aqueous suspension containing Tidiazuron and Ethephon®, one or more surfactants, one or various thickeners and water, as well as the use thereof to defoliate cotton plants (MX 212959); a composition for controlling fungi in a plant, consisting of 20 ppm 2-chloroethylphosphonic acid and about 84 ppm methyl-1-(butylcarbamoyl)-2-benzimidazol carbamate (U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,429); a synergic combination of 2-chloroethylphosphonic acid with tetrachloroisophthalonitrile for increasing the ethylene-release into the plants tissues (U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,219); a method for inhibiting the growing of plants by applying to them 2-chloroethylphosphonic acid (U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,819 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,661); a method for controlling the apical dominance consisting en the application of 0.1 lb to 16 lb per acre of plants, of 2-chloroethylphosphonic acid (U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,689); a composition to regulate the growing of a plant, containing 2-chloroethylphosphonic acid and a N-heterocyclic amine (U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,436); a stable composition to regulate the growing of plants, comprising a dispersion in the shape of a microemulsion and containing micelles of no more than 300 nm diameter, with 2-chloroethylphosphonic acid, hydrocarbon oil, water and hydrophobic surfactant (U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,660); an Ethephon® emulsion with 15 to 50% oil phase and 50 to 80% aqueous phase to be applied as a spray (U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,086).
On the other side, the state of the art discloses some methods for the control of mistletoe, including a method to eliminate mistletoe from branches of host plants by using a material o opaque plastic to cover said branch until the death thereof; then remove said branch (U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,646 and JP 2007244364); a process for the control of mistletoe in host plants by applying to said mistletoe natural oils as a physical barrier to interrupt the carbon dioxide and water consumption (U.S. Pat. No. 6,579,830), among other methods.